


We're Like Stars, You and I

by Ghostinthehouse



Series: Touch Me Not [4]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Gen, POV Outsider, touch-averse Crowley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 08:55:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21425545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostinthehouse/pseuds/Ghostinthehouse
Summary: There's a new kid at Adam's school. She doesn't like being touched, and he knows someone who just might be a kindred spirit on that.'She scuffed her toe against the ground. "Mum says I'll grow out of it."Crowley shrugged. "I never have, and I'm older'n dirt."'
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Brian & Adam Young (Good Omens), Crowley & Adam Young (Good Omens)
Series: Touch Me Not [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1544365
Comments: 18
Kudos: 657





	We're Like Stars, You and I

Lily stood uncertainly at the edge of her new classroom as the other children swarmed into their seats, brushing past her as if it was perfectly normal. She tried not to flinch or freeze each time it happened. Nobody else did. Luckily, the teacher came to the conclusion that she was just shy, and directed her to a table with a spare seat. The other two seats were taken by two boys, one dark and gawky, the other blond and sturdier.

She slid into the indicated chair and tried not to catch their eyes. Dark and gawky stuck out a hand and she froze, instinctively shrinking back in her chair.

Both boys exchanged a long glance and then dark and gawky pulled his hand back. "Figures, the one time I forget to ask," he said, and it sounded entirely unshocked and almost half an apology.

Blond and sturdy planted both elbows on the table. "I'm Adam, that's Brian. You prefer high five, handshake, or wave?"

Lily blinked, half-stunned. He was offering her a choice? "Um, wave," she said hesitantly and then blurted out, "I don't like being touched."

The blond boy, Adam, shrugged and waved his fingers, as unshocked as Brian had been. "Ok."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"Nah, I'm used to it. One of my godfathers is the same." He shrugged again, grabbed his paper and a pen and started taking notes as the lesson began. "Could maybe introduce you, if you like, and if he's ok with it, of course."

"Ok," she muttered, starting her own set of notes. She doubted it would ever come to anything. Nothing anyone offered that easily ever worked out. Just do this, just do that, just get over it...was all it ever came to.

To her astonishment, it took less than a week. She had expected someone old-fashioned and religious, maybe in a smart suit, but the man waiting for them wore jeans and a leather jacket - and sunglasses. Wavy, coppery hair framed his face and hung almost to his collar. He looked her over, hands jammed into too-small pockets, and made no attempt to reach out towards her. He said, "Hey kid."

Adam waved cheerfully. "Crowley, this is Lily. Lily, Crowley."

Crowley nodded. "You're the kid who doesn't like being touched, right?"

Lily nodded and scuffed her toe against the ground. "Mum says I'll grow out of it."

Crowley shrugged. "I never have, and I'm older'n dirt. Definitely older than your mum. But me and my angel, we make it work."

"Really? I'm not- broken?"

"Nope." He popped the p. "Me, I was just made this way. Expect you were too. It's not the easiest path, not fitting into the expectations the world and everyone has for you, but it's worth it sometimes. Eh, Adam?"

Adam grinned almost shyly. "Better this way," he agreed, and he and Crowley shared a look as if it were some private joke she wasn't included in.

She looked down, dropping her gaze to the dirt he claimed to be older than, and hunched in on herself, waiting for them to realise they didn't actually want her around.

***

Crowley could all but feel the fear rolling off her, and shifted his weight from foot to foot, trying to come up with an explanation that would pass muster with someone who thought he was human. He got down on one knee so he could see her face without either of them having to force the issue with a touch. "Hey, s'ok. Everyone's different from each other. Think of it this way. Some folk are like planets, drawing people in and holding them close. Some folk are like stars, drawing people in and yet keeping them at arm's length. We're stars, you and I. Not so many of us around, compared to planets, but just as necessary in the universe." And some folk, he thought but didn't say out loud, drew people in and gave nothing back but destruction, and they were like black holes. And sometimes...sometimes those black holes formed from the brightest stars in the sky.*

She did look up then, and there were tears in her eyes. "But..."

"Been told otherwise, I presume?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, thought so. Maybe you'll grow out of it, maybe you won't. Doesn't matter. Maybe you want a partner, maybe you don't, maybe you'll find someone that just gets to you..." He could feel his face going soft and fond at the thought of Aziraphale. "It's ok just to be you, whatever that is. And maybe a lot of folk will tell you it isn't, but they're wrong. Truly." He smiled wryly. "Me and my angel, we prove them wrong all the time, just by living."

She smiled then, shaky and tentative, but there.

He grinned back, got to his feet, and brushed dust from his jeans. "See? You're getting there already."

*For example, Lucifer, the Morning Star, Bringer of Light, as was.


End file.
